The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly, to techniques for access point (AP) controlled uplink request-to-send/clear-to-send (RTS/CTS) configuration and disablement in a wireless network.
The deployment of wireless local area networks (WLANs) in the home, the office, and various public facilities is commonplace today. Such networks typically employ a wireless access point (AP) that connects a number of wireless stations (STAs) in a specific locality (e.g., home, office, public facility, etc.) to another network, such as the Internet or the like. A set of STAs can communicate with each other through a common AP in what is referred to as a basic service set (BSS). However, some WLAN network deployments may be dense (e.g., have a large number of STAs deployed within the coverage area of multiple APs), which may result in issues related to channel or medium usage. In other examples, the wireless network may be configured as an “ad-hoc” communication system in which terminals asynchronously communication directly with each other without use of any specific AP.
Thus, with multiple STAs and APs operating in a limited area, traffic collisions and interferences may occur among STAs and/or APs attempting to access the wireless medium. In some aspects, various techniques and systems have been developed to avoid or minimize traffic collisions (e.g., where multiple STAs attempt to access the wireless medium simultaneously) by coordinating access to the wireless medium. One example of collision avoidance (CA) system may be a utilization of RTS/CTS protocol procedure. RTS/CTS protocol procedure are an optional mechanism used by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 wireless networking protocol to reduce, for example, frame collisions introduced by the hidden node problem (e.g., when a node is visible from an AP, but not from other nodes communicating with the AP).
However, conventional system's reliance on a rigid RTS/CTS protocol procedure regardless of varying conditions in the wireless network may raise other issues that adversely affect overall network performance. In one example, utilization of conventional RTS/CTS protocol may result in the exposed terminal problem where a wireless node (e.g., overlapping basic service set (OBSS) node) that is nearby, but associated with another AP may overhear the exchange, and thus be forced to backoff and cease transmitting for the specified period in the RTS. In other example, transmitting RTS/CTS frame or packets prior to accessing the wireless medium may be counter intuitive where the uplink frame scheduled for transmission has a shorter duration than the RTS/CTS protocol procedure itself.